Crime Ridiculed Punishment

Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, June 7 1999

Only unbridled optimists could have hoped for a different outcome of this judicial farce in the state whose ruler, with the last gasps of energy, is fighting for his throne, using his characteristic method of the manufacture of "enemies". Since Franjo Tudman has these days publicly "produced" as many as 20 percent of "enemies", those Croats who do not love Croatia, it makes sense that his "cleansers" interpret that statement exactly as his ominous Decree from 1991. The only difference is in the ethnic background of the "enemy".

Here you go: our boys are finally free. Even a few remaining skeptics, who doubted the infamous pronouncement of the former president of the Supreme Court that Croats could not have committed crimes in a defensive war, can finally relax. Last week, the "heroes" from Pakracka Poljana were released from custody, whereby the independent Croatian judiciary, guided by the best-known Croatian victimologists, Zvonimir Separovic [minister for Justice], closed the files of a fabricated crime in which Croatian knights allegedly murdered and maltreated Serb civilians. The Croatian judiciary yet again proved to be an independent lever of democratic authorities and the moment when, eight years after the alleged crimes in Pakracka Poljana had taken place, the president of the Council of the County Court in Zagreb Ratko Scekic announced the acquittal of "our boys" because of the lack of evidence, will be remembered in the annals of the independent judiciary of the independent state of Croatia.

"There is no firm nor certain evidence that the crime occurred in the manner described in the indictment..." were the words with which the independent judge Ratko Scekic probably successfully unburdened his conscience, closed the door on several months spent in fear and took off the garb of an extra in a political trial staged on the scene of the County Court.

Judiciary and Croatiandom

Therefore, last week, heroes of the Patriotic War - Munib Suljic, Igor Mikola, Sinisa Rimac, Miroslav Bajramovic, Branko Saric and Zoran Karlovic - better known as "Mercep's boys", as free people finally inhaled the Croatian air, much cleaner than in 1991 when it was polluted by Croatian Serbs in Pakracka Poljana. That long gone year "our boys" - according to their lawyers - obediently accepted the Decree issued by the president of the Republic in connection with the internal affairs in the state of war (which, by the way, has never been declared) and danger for Croatia, which gave them the right "to indefinitely imprison anyone who endangers the stability of the state".

Today after the acquittal of the heroes from Pakracka Poljana, no one has a reason to doubt that the Serb civilians from the Pakrac region, as well as those from Zagreb who were taken to Pakracka Poljana, where they were maltreated and murdered, indeed endangered the security of the state during the war. The only remaining uncertainty (that will never be cleared up) is who tortured them by delivering electric shocks to their bodies, who forced them to dig graves and who finally fired shots to their heads.

What is now certain is that that was not done by the heroes of the Patriotic War Munib Suljic, Igor Mikola, Zoran Karlovic, Sinisa Rimac, nor by any other members of the unit commanded by Tomislav Mercep.

Miro Bajramovic, the man who at the time shocked the Croatian public with his testimony published in Feral in which he meticulously described a whole series of murders of Croatian Serbs committed by him and his comrades from the so-called Mercep's group, was punished by a lenient jail term, which he has already served, for "the extortion and illegal confiscation of property from Stevan Brajenovic". Of course, it is not known, nor will it ever be, who blew up the belly of Stevan Brajenovic, a Serb from Zagreb, so that he almost didn't survive, but today it is, fortunately, finally absolutely certain that that was not done by anyone of "our boys". Of course, the accusations against "our boys" had only one goal - to attack the very foundations of the heroic Patriotic War.

Prison That Never Was

Moreover, not only is Bajramovic not guilty of any of the murders he publicly confessed to, but the Court could not find any aggravating circumstances when sentencing him and Saric, and their lack of a previous criminal record was taken as an extenuating circumstance. The question about who was supposed to be warned or threatened by Bajramovic's sick confession in Feral will remain as one of the dark unexplained secrets of Tudman's "defensive" war.

Another hero of the patriotic War, Branko Saric, better known under nickname Kosa, was punished by the most lenient legally available sentence - a year in jail - because as the commander of the prison in Poljana "he condoned the cruel behavior of the guards who beat Stevan Brajenovic and threatened to kill him". Thus, the independent Croatian judiciary finally admitted what had been denied for years by the key witnesses in the Pakracka Poljana trial - Tomislav Mercep and Ivan Vekic: that there was a prison in Pakracka Poljana.

Who are, however, the guards who "cruelly behaved"? What actually happened in the prison that actually "did not exist"? Why were the witnesses of the murder of Sasa Antic, themselves prisoners in Pakracka Poljana, Branko Velagic and Nikola Peles, in the trial to "our boys", according to judge Scekic, "inconsistent and contradictory in important aspects of the case"?

Scekic and other participants in one of the most painful cases from the Croatian "defensive" war against Serb civilians probably know very well the answer to these questions. Of course, the reason is in fear, threats, unreliable character of the judicial system, total lack of protection for the key prosecution witnesses... This was a shameful trial full of conscious hiding of evidence, preceded by a superficial investigation started the whole eight years after the crimes had taken place and seven years after the Police had obtained written confessions from the accused, and nowadays free heroes from Pakracka Poljana.

Handcuffs for Journalists

Equally easy was to predict the behavior of the unquestionable hero of the patriotic War, Munib Suljic, who, framed in a suit, with a Croatian tie tied around his neck, clean shaven and spruced up, inside the courtroom revealed his true nature of a bully brought up on a stencil of Tudman's heroes, by spitting in the face of a journalist who dared to approach him and ask for a statement. Rightfully treating the courtroom as a back alley in his own village, unquestionable Croat Munib Suljic, who in 1991 decided to implement questionable Tudman's Decree about the maltreatment of "those who endangered the security of the state", eight years later, in front of the policeman who had taken off his handcuffs made an ominous statement: "Now that my handcuffs are off, we'll put them on journalists!"

Thereby the man who literally understood the message about "internal enemies" from 1991, as well as those from 1999, told the truth about crime and punishment in Tudman's Croatia. Munib Suljic, an unquestionable Croat, at the time hated Croatian Serbs following the instructions of his president, and today, relying on the same madness of his ruler, hates "suspicious" Croatian journalists. We do not know what Suljic's emotions toward Muslims [Suljic is a Bosnian Muslim name] are, but it is certain that with the instinct of a hunting dog he follows the thoughts of his master, for whom the surplus of internal enemies has permanently secured that crucial surplus of power. Yesterday, Serb civilians were the internal enemy, today - independent journalists whom unquestionable Croat Munib Suljic would, hey, like to handcuff.

But, will he only stick to the handcuffs? Since the police documentation published by Feral with the confessions of the "knights" from Pakrac about their crimes committed in Pakracka Poljana, and maltreatment of the Serbs who were imprisoned there testifies about the application of equipment much more "sophisticated" than ordinary handcuffs. However, Munib Suljic, only used plain street language to express what Franjo Tudman, with assistance of his independent judiciary and courageous judges, has been trying to achieve for years: to put handcuffs on our hands. Because of that, various Suljics, Rimacs, Mikolas, Bajramovics... only have value for Tudman if they are free.

Recipe from Pantovcak

Because of that, one should not at any time forget that in this typically Croatian story everything was clear from the very start. One of the accused, Sinisa Rimac, member of the elite Tudman's personal guard and many times decorated veteran of the Patriotic War underlined this, well dressed with a mobile phone in his hand: "I am not surprised by this decision. There were no indications, let alone any evidence against me. I am glad that I have been cleared, both as a man and the defender of Croatia."

Here, memory takes us back to 1992 and Tudman's Decree ordering "imprisonment of all who endanger the state security". Then, a twelve-year-old girl named Aleksandra Zec lived in Tresnjevka, a suburb of Zagreb. She was not aware that with her toys she "endangered" the security of the Croatian state, but that fact was spotted by a "boy" (as the then Minister of Police Ivan Vekic referred to then twenty-years-old Sinisa Rimac in his statements) who, together with his comrades decided to "imprison" little Aleksandra Zec. The girl was taken from her home in Tresnjevka, together with her parents, driven to Sljeme and "imprisoned" there. Forever!

Hunting Season

Only unbridled optimists could have hoped for a different outcome of this judicial farce in the state whose ruler in spite of serious illness and old age which should imply resignation and gentleness, with last gasps of energy is fighting for his throne, using his characteristic method of the manufacture of "enemies". Since Franjo Tudman has these days publicly "produced" as many as 20 percent of "enemies", those Croats who do not love Croatia, it makes sense that his "cleansers" interpret that exactly as his ominous Decree from 1991. The only difference is in the ethnic background of the "enemy".